Map    Surgery website

The partnership was established at 19 Creffield Rd shortly after the last war with the merger of two single-handed practices.  Since then it has expanded and there are now around 12,000 patients for the 6 partners, 2 GP retainers, 2 GP Registrars and 2 Nurse Practitioners.  We maintain personal lists although there is considerable flexibility.  Our aim is to combine modern developments in medicine and organisation with the best of the traditional features of family practice.

 The Practice is situated at the Southern edge of the town centre close to the Essex County Hospital.  Historically we have covered Colchester Borough and some nearby villages.  However, over recent years we have concentrated on the sector lying to the west of the town centre.  The partnership owned premises consist of a converted Victorian house that has been greatly expanded to the rear.  In addition to the usual facilities, there is a fully equipped treatment room including an operating room for minor surgery.  There is also a large conference room that is used for both educational and business meetings of the practice.  Tutorials take place either in this conference room or in the adjoining counsellor’s “comfortable room”.

 We offer a full range of services and have consistently hit higher targets for smears and immunisations.  We installed a new computer system (EMIS) in July 1999 and this had a very stimulating effect on the practice in terms of information recording and audit work. We have now made the progression to "paperlite", enjoying electronic lab results, scanned letters and fully summarised notes on computer.

 We have an excellent nursing team with an excellent skill mix.  We have two marvellously effective Nurse Practitioners who run minor illness clinics in addition to asthma, diabetes and cardiac clinics.  We also have another experienced nurse who runs a “protocol led clinic” where she does family planning, HRT repeats, BP checks, travel advice and smears etc.  The result of this non-partner input is that the above average list sizes can be managed efficiently and safely, maintaining our aim of excellent patient service.

 We were a training practice for many years until 1991 when the additional demands of fund holding and building works forced our temporary withdrawal.  Our current trainer, Andrew Lennard-Jones, was accredited in February 2000 and we restarted training later that year in August.  The Registrar has their own consulting room, a debrief after morning surgery and a weekly 2 hour tutorial in place of Thursday morning surgery.  Nick Dixon used to train at the practice, and in 2004 he did the Associate Trainers course to update his skills and qualifications. He now jointly trains a Registrar from the army. There is also a weekly half day and the alternate Wednesday whole day release for the VTS. All of the partners enjoy having a Registrar around and thoroughly relish their contributions to the training. 

 For further information, please either visit our website at :

www.creffieldroadsurgery.nhs.uk  or contact Andrew Lennard-Jones

Revised: September 21, 2005 .